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Turning Sex Into a Spectator Sport

In the wonderfully entertaining
film Captain America: Winter Soldier,
there’s a scene where two fugitives, a man and a woman, are trying to avoid
being caught. A corrupt official who knows them is about to walk by, so the
lady turns to the guy with a plan: he needs to kiss her. Confused, he asks why.
She answers, “Public displays of affection make people very uncomfortable.” And
so they kiss. It’s not a racy kiss, but it still causes the corrupt official to
turn his head slightly away, effectively causing him to miss the fact that he
just passed by his targets.

We all instinctively respond the
same way, don’t we? As a culture, we may be more
comfortable with PDA than we were, say, a couple decades ago, but we still
don’t automatically gawk when two lovebirds share airtime. Rather, if we see a
couple making out in public, our inclination is to turn away. This response
hints at something we all instinctually know: intimate moments are not for
public observation.

Sexual intimacy isn’t something
God positioned on center stage. It is not a spectator sport. And regardless of
your stance on PDA, the Christian position regarding the sex act itself is that
it is supposed to be off stage, so to speak. A violation of this principle in
our entertainment is an artistic and moral failure. Let’s look at the artistic problems first.

An artistic failure

How is a public display of sex (real
or simulated) an artistic failure? In his book Reading Between the Lines, Gene Edward Veith says it “violates
aesthetic decorum” (p. 36). Pointing to the Greeks, who admittedly “were hardly
prudish or moralistic,” Veith notes how ancient dramas avoided certain words
and deeds on stage. They dealt with violence and sex, for sure, but they did so
through “exalted poetry,” not explicit acts that took viewers out of the
experience of the story.

Fast forward to modern-day
filmmaking:

When an actor
and an actress take off their clothes in a movie, viewers begin reacting
sexually instead of aesthetically. The dramatic effect is interrupted and
displaced by the sexual effect. Stimulating an audience artistically takes
skill and craft; stimulating them sexually is far easier. (p. 36)

Anyone with a pulse knows this to be true. We label such
scenes as “hot” and “steamy” because of how they affect us. (Heck, my dictionary’s definition for the word “steamy”
uses the phrase “steamy sex scenes” as the example.)

When filmmakers present us with an up-close view of an
intensely personal and sexual act, they become (unlike Gandalf the Grey)
conjurers of cheap tricks. We stop responding to the characters in the movie as
characters. Or, as Donald Sutherland once put it, “When I take my clothes off people are no
longer looking at me as a character, they’re looking at me with no clothes on.”
[1]

When we’re faced with a sex scene
on screen, we’re left with feeling either uncomfortable (like those who come
across couples making out in public) or aroused (like peeping Toms anxious for
titillation)—or possibly a mixture of both. Whatever the case, sex scenes are
an aesthetic canker that pushes audiences out of the story.

A moral failure

For the Christian, the problem is
not only artistic, but also moral. Veith continues:

The moral
problem with obscenity is even more significant than the aesthetic problem. We
might think of the “obscene,” in the Greek sense, as portrayals of what should
be kept private. Sexuality is for the private intimacy of marriage, not for
public eyes. Striptease shows are obscene, not because nudity is wrong but
because nudity is private. To pay a woman to take her clothes off in front of
crowds of ogling men is to violate her in a very brutal way. Public sex is
obscene, not because sex is evil but because sex is sacred. (p. 37)

As I mentioned earlier, the sex act
is, by God’s design, inherently private. To publicize the act is to pervert the
act. Sex gone public is sex gone wrong.

In the book of Proverbs, the
author of our sexuality speaks about His design for its enjoyment:

Drink water from your own cistern,
and running water from your own well. Should your fountains be dispersed
abroad, streams of water in the streets? Let them be only your own, and not for
strangers with you. Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of
your youth. As a loving deer and a graceful
doe, let her breasts satisfy you at all times; and always be enraptured with
her love. (Pr. 5:15-19)

Sexual enjoyment that is pure and
satisfying and fulfilling involves this component: keeping your experiences
private—away from outside intrusion. Public sexuality is no more refreshing
than a broken well whose water leaks out and runs through the dirt.

In contrast with our Creator’s
beautiful provision of covenant faithfulness, exclusivity, and holy pleasure,
sex on the silver screen offers an obscene, pornographic substitute. This cheap
replica defiles true pleasure, as well as our experience of the One who created
us to delight in that pleasure. For the glory of God and the enjoyment of our
own souls, let us not be content with inferior copycats of God’s abundant
provisions.Previous entry: “But
Professional Actors Aren’t Sexually Affected”Next entry: When
Did Voyeurism Stop Being a Vice?

[1] http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/my-mums-going-to-see-this-actors-and-actresses-reveal-secrets-of-the-sex-scenes-7658255.html
(I’m not providing a direct link to the article because of its explicit
nature.)

Comments

In the wonderfully entertaining film Captain America: Winter Soldier, there’s a scene where two fugitives, a man and a woman, are trying to avoid being caught. A corrupt official who knows them is about to walk by, so the lady turns to the guy with a plan: he needs to kiss her. Confused, he asks why. She answers, “Public displays of affection make people very uncomfortable.”

[This obligatory comment is designed to make Facebook recognize my article’s content. Thanks for your understanding.]

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gets what he wants because he’s rich, powerful, and handsome. In telling this
story, the movie doesn’t shy away from depictions of the sex act. The audience
is inundated with sex, in fact. The debauchery is enough to make a lot of
people sick, either with revulsion, pleasure, or a mixture of both.

Do you think I’m talking about Fifty Shades of Grey? Actually, I’m referring to The Wolf of Wall Street, which came out on
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on the other hand, has been either ignored or condemned. And yet there are some
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They both employ stylistic techniques that were labeled as hardcore porn just a few decades
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